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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29972271">catch-22</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/desperheaux/pseuds/desperheaux'>desperheaux</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dreamcatcher (Korea Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>&amp; alleged collegefriend!siyeon normallawyer!bora and mandarintutor!handong, Chaos, F/F, Fluff, Humor, alt title: yoo catches feelings instead of a criminal &amp; no one is what they say they are, except for minji who is TIRED, feat genius!gahyeon agent!yoohyeon stressed!minji evenmorestressed!yubin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 03:21:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,186</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29972271</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/desperheaux/pseuds/desperheaux</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“So you’re trying to tell me you had no idea? This whole time?”</p><p>“That my kid sister is running a criminal organization and my girlfriend is a secret sleeper agent? ...No, but it does make a lot of sense, now that I think about it.”</p><p>(Gahyeon is a genius. Yoohyeon is the cute new employee of the florist across the street. Minji... has no idea how she got into this situation.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kim Minji | JiU/Kim Yoohyeon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>97</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>catch-22</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I promise I'm working on the other incomplete works I have! ...but this has also been sitting around for ages and clicking 'post' motivates me to actually hold myself accountable to updating, and also I apparently cannot rest without throwing this ~genius!gahyeon dragging cute!jiyoo into utter chaos~ characterization into every single plot premise possible, so. here's another. sorry. :c</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>All Minji wanted to do was bake a few macarons. That’s it. Sell some cakes, serve some coffee, be the normal hardworking pastry shop owner that she is.</p><p>So how exactly did she get here, hanging out of a helicopter fifty kilometers off the Pacific coast, with an EMP missile headed right in her direction?</p><p>Some, like Siyeon, might argue it was because Minji flirted with the cute new employee of the florist shop across the street. But Minji likes to think it all began when her little sister accidentally infiltrated the largest crime syndicate in the world.</p><p>If five-year-old Minji had known that the wrinkly little newborn in their mother’s arms would grow up to be the embodiment of pure chaos, she might have wailed right alongside her new sister. Instead she flashed what would become her trademark sunny smile, cooed until the lump in swaddling clothes stopped screaming, and determinedly began her lifelong mission to be the best big sister ever.</p><p>The universe, however, decided to throw in a stipulation to make her job outrageously difficult:</p><p>Her sister would be Gahyeon, and Gahyeon would be a genius.</p><p>Minji was there when Gahyeon began speaking in full sentences way before any normal infant should know how to do anything except cry when hungry. (Which she still did, almost more than Minji. Which Minji was a little sore about at first because eating their parents out of house and home was <i>her</i> thing, but it was hard to treat Gahyeon like a rival when she would cry loudly for food and then, quieter: “Minji eat with Gahyeon?”)</p><p>She was there when six-year-old Gahyeon read all of Jean-Paul Sartre’s philosophical works in one evening and called them “nice, but a tad contradictory on the metaphysical front.” (“Maybe existence precedes essence, but what I wanna know is why dessert doesn’t precede dinner!” Gahyeon whined. Minji didn’t really follow, but she still slipped Gahyeon one of her freshly baked cookies when their parents were busy exchanging exasperated glances.)</p><p>She was there when Gahyeon, age twelve, got bored of abstract algebra and created her own theorem for time travel. (“If I had the resources, I’d take us back a few years. Trust me, university sucks,” Gahyeon huffed. The unspoken “mostly because you’re going to be leaving for it soon” had Minji misty-eyed for days, and also inspired her to opt for a single dorm for when Gahyeon would inevitably and frequently drop by.)</p><p>By all accounts, having a certified genius for a little sister should be breeding grounds for jealousy and bitter feelings of inadequacy. People who became acquainted with their family would often look at Minji with pity, would sympathetically suggest that it must be so awkward sometimes, having your five years younger sister know five times more than you?</p><p>But Minji was also there when cruel kids would shove Gahyeon down in the sandbox or shun her in classrooms, when duplicitous adults would treat her as a party trick or try to get their parents to sign her away to a corporate experiment. She was there for all of it, and more importantly, she was there for Gahyeon. (“I may not know what L’Hôpital’s Rule is, but my rule is if anyone messes with my little sister, they’re getting a punch in the face!” Minji punched the nearest wall for emphasis, and whimpered in pain. “It was actually Bernoulli’s theorem,” Gahyeon said around sniffles, but also the beginnings of a smile, “and I think Minji’s Rule is just going to hurt Minji’s Hand.” “And faces! I can punch hard!” “Hmm... the limit as Minji’s Hand approaches the wall... indeterminate.” “Hey, the limit does not exist, I know that one!”)</p><p>Minji can be surprisingly stubborn for someone with such an easygoing, bright demeanor. This trait is how she managed to pass Calculus, why she ended up with a sprained wrist from punching a boy who had been bullying Gahyeon, and admittedly perhaps the reason for why she will find herself hanging out of a helicopter over the ocean with a missile on her coattails. But the point is: When Minji sets missions for herself, she sees them to completion.</p><p>Being the best big sister ever is the most difficult of these missions, but for twenty years now she has stubbornly loved on her adorable, terrifyingly nefarious little sister, and she doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.</p><p>“Ooooooh, Minji has a <i>cruuuuush.</i>”</p><p>Well. Twenty years <i>is</i> a pretty successful run of time. There might just be a change in plans.</p><p>“I do not!”</p><p>“It doesn’t take a genius to know you’re infatuated with Tree Girl. But in case you needed the affirmation, I’m a genius, and I know you’re infatuated with Tree Girl. Ask her out!”</p><p>“Her name isn't Tree Girl, and I’m not going to ask her out!”</p><p>“Oooh, playing hard to get?”</p><p>Minji glares over her tray of half-frosted red velvet cupcakes to where Gahyeon sits perched up on the cashier counter, legs swinging innocently back and forth. Not for the first time, Minji considers giving up on her lifelong mission, and putting her dear little sister in a headlock.</p><p>Instead she pushes apart the curtains that separate the back room from the store, and advances threateningly with a spatula covered in leftover frosting. Gahyeon is sent dramatically screeching and rolling sideways off the counter to drop to safety on the customer side.</p><p>Minji sniffs with fake haughtiness. “I’ve told you a million times not to sit on my counter.” She holds the spatula out, and just the top of Gahyeon’s dark hair and a single disembodied finger pop up to steal a dollop for a taste test.</p><p>“It’s not even opening hours yet!” The younger protests, and then smacks her lips. “Mm. Thicker than the last batch. Still tasty, as per usual.” Her finger comes back to take a bigger swipe, but Minji retracts her arm before she can clean up the whole spatula.</p><p>She sighs over Gahyeon’s whine, and makes her way back into the kitchen to frown over her cupcakes. “Something’s missing. You don’t think it should be sweeter?”</p><p>Minji’s stubbornness sometimes translates to downright perfectionism, and her most fervently toiled-over mission for the past year has been the upkeep of her beloved pastry shop. Fully owned and run by Minji herself after years of school and saving up money, Jiu’s Pastries is as much Minji’s precious baby as Gahyeon is. She has nurtured it into a shop of local repute, and each cake and cookie is baked as a labor of love. Recently, though, she has been in a slump. Nothing comes out quite how she wants it to.</p><p>Gahyeon, standing from her hiding spot, notices her sister’s slumped shoulders and is quick to reassure.</p><p>“Hey, baking is a science that requires precision, ingenuity, and patience.” She hops back over the counter and points almost accusatory through the open curtain divider. “You’re a master in your field. I don’t think you could make something taste bad if you tried.”</p><p>Minji slowly starts to regain her signature smile. For all of their squabbling, she knows she can always count on her sister to be there for her at the end of the day.</p><p>“...But something is missing; I think it’s the decor around here? Maybe you should go across the street and ask Tree Girl for something to <i>spruce</i> up the place a b—“</p><p>Gahyeon ducks with a yelp as a pipette of icing comes sailing at her head. Minji hums, only slightly disappointed she missed.</p><p>“You’re cleaning that up, by the way.”</p><p>“What?! You don’t even pay me to help out around here!”</p><p>Minji sends her a dry look before continuing to frost her cupcakes with an intact pipette. “Last I heard of your bragging, you have enough money to buy out my shop a hundred times over. Where you get funds from, I have no idea, and frankly I don’t want to know.”</p><p>“Smart stocks playing, and the dark web, mostly.” Gahyeon shrugs. “It’s amazing what some people will pay for. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, I uncovered five years’ worth of illegal pay-offs in the local police force a couple weeks ago. Really shook up the administration downtown.”</p><p>Minji raises her spatula again.</p><p>“Anonymously, of course!” Gahyeon is quick to defend herself.</p><p>Minji shakes her head and moves to plate a few pastries in the display case beside her sheepish sister. “When the feds come knocking, I’m going to gift them a goodie bag of desserts for finally arresting you.”</p><p>Gahyeon snorts. “As if those noobs could ever trace me.” She swoops up the fallen pipette, and tosses it back at Minji as she rushes across the shop floor, away from retaliation. “Siyeon’s here. I’m going to buy some flowers!” And then she ducks out the door with a frantic tinkle of the entrance bells, before Minji can wipe the explosion of icing off her apron and shout an empty threat after her.</p><p>“Do <i>not</i> embarrass me; I will ban you from my store if you try anything! You hear me?! No more fudge brownies!”</p><p>“I’m assuming that was meant for the brat and not me?”</p><p>In walks Siyeon, Minji’s best worker and university friend, with an amused smile and a much softer tinkling of bells.</p><p>“Of course,” Minji grumbles. “She’s going across the street to meddle. Thinks I have a crush or something.”</p><p>“Oh good, I don’t think I could survive without your fudge brownies.” Siyeon shrugs off her oversized hoodie as she makes her way to the back, and casually fixes her short blue hair as she adds, “Also, you totally do have a crush.”</p><p>Minji knows better than to throw a pipette at Siyeon; the woman has scarily fast reflexes she claims are from childhood years of martial arts training, even though Minji can’t ever picture her soft friend ever resorting to violence. Still she narrows her eyes as Siyeon preps herself for the store’s opening, and continues to glare as she eventually comes back out with a dish rag in hand and feigned innocence on her face.</p><p>“What? Don’t try to tell me you don’t. You’ve been staring out the storefront for weeks, ever since the flower shop acquired a new tree. Gahyeon’s words, not mine.” Her smile turns nearly wolfish. “But the tree must be really pretty, if it has you distracted enough to ice yourself instead of your cupcakes.” She nonchalantly sets to work as Minji splutters beside her, indignantly swiping her apron front clean as she tries to come up with something to retort back with.</p><p>“For the last time, she’s not a tree. Gahyeon’s just short,” is the best she can do. “She has a name, you know!”</p><p>Siyeon pauses mid-wipe down of the counter, and arches an eyebrow. “And you know it?”</p><p>Minji’s hands freeze as she admits: “...I might have gone over last week to give her some pastries.”</p><p>Siyeon raises her other eyebrow.</p><p>“Just as a ‘welcome to the neighbourhood’ type of gift!”</p><p>“Uh huh,” Siyeon drawls out, and Minji has to remind herself that clean-up will be a hassle if she fires her only employee. “I haven’t seen this mystery beauty yet… maybe I should drop by to welcome her to the neighbourhood, too.”</p><p>Sometimes Minji wonders if Gahyeon is really Siyeon’s little sister, their mischievous grins carbon copies of each other. Surely there is something matching in their DNA that compels them to make Minji’s life missions as difficult as possible.</p><p>Minji moves to switch out her apron as she sweetly says, “While you do that, I’ll take fudge brownies off the menu. Permanently.”</p><p>Siyeon wisely changes the topic to something about the lack of realism in a superhero movie she saw in theatres recently. Minji entertains the argument easily, but as she smooths down her replacement apron (<i><strike>Kiss</strike> Boo-up the <strike>Cook</strike> Baker</i>, an edited gift courtesy of Gahyeon’s messy stitchwork three birthdays ago), she moves to the front door and hesitates, distracted, as she flips the sign to open.</p><p>What lies inside the florist shop is blurred by passing traffic and the wide bouquets that cluster together beautifully in the storefront window. For the past few years, Minji hasn’t been able to focus much on things outside of tending to her little bakery and sister. But as she recalls the way that cute new worker had fumbled with endearingly awkward fingers as she thrust the nearest flower, a striking blue rose, back at her as a return thank-you present, she also recalls an old mission of hers that’s always been on the backburner of indulgence:</p><p>To hold a pretty girl’s hand.</p><p><i>Yoohyeon,</i> she hums to herself, and wonders if the universe will finally grant her the chance to embark on this particular mission.</p><p>She should expect nothing less, considering the universe has gifted her Gahyeon as a little sister, but as she will reflect upon a bit later under the sputtering rotors of a stolen helicopter, there really is no way for her to anticipate the stipulations that the universe will throw at her this time.</p>
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